NASA to show off test article

NEW ORLEANS – NASA on April 25 will show off to the media the first completed core stage structural test article of the Space Launch System rocket built at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. This test article, which will provide critical data for the world's most powerful rocket, will be shipped on the barge Pegasus from Michoud to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., where it will undergo structural testing. The rocket's engine section test article is the first of four core stage test articles manufactured at Michoud. The engine section, the bottom of the 212-foot-long core stage, has to be strong because all four RS-25 engines and the SLS's two solid rocket motors are attached to it and produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust at lift-off. The structural qualification test article was designed to the same specifications as the engine section that will fly on the first SLS mission. After the structural tests at Marshall, Pegasus will transport the entire flight core stage to NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., for testing, and then on to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for integration into the SLS vehicle and launch. (Source: NASA via PRNewswire, 04/21/17)